The present invention relates generally to fluid treatment devices containing a supply of solid agents soluble in the fluid to be treated and, more particularly, to devices for automatically feeding soluble fluid treating agents into a fluid body.
Water and other fluid treatment tablets containing a wide variety of different types of soluble treating agents are used in a wide variety of different fluid treatment applications such as water treatment, cleaning, laundry and dish washing applications, cooling tower applications, toilet bowl, pool and spa applications, sewage treatment and still other applications. For example, a wide variety of different types of toilet bowl tablets are available for sanitizing, cleaning and deodorizing toilet bowl water after each flush. In similar fashion, a wide variety of swimming pool and spa tablets are likewise available for use in controlling the chlorination, pH factor and total alkalinity of the swimming pool/spa water. In many of these applications, it is desirable for the soluble tablets to last a long time and to deliver a continuous prescribed dosage of treating agents to the particular fluid body.
At the present time, these tablets are typically placed, for example, at the bottom of a toilet bowl tank or at the bottom of a swimming pool skimmer basket member for fluid treatment purposes. These tablets are typically manufactured with sufficient treating agents to match a particular application such as a typical toilet bowl tank or a typically sized swimming pool or spa. However, as a tablet dissolves, the surface area of the tablet diminishes and the tablet delivers a declining dosage amount of treating agents thereby delivering less than the prescribed amount of agents to accomplish the particular fluid treatment application. As a result, additional tablets should be added during the dissolving process in order to maintain the desired chemical dosage level to accomplish the particular application.
This problem is best exemplified in the utilization of treatment tablets for sanitizing toilet bowl tanks. In this particular application, toilet bowl tablets presently marketed will typically kill 99.9% of germs in the toilet bowl water after each flush for up to approximately seven (7) weeks. However, these tablets will typically last up to twelve (12) weeks before they are completely dissolved. During the last five (5) weeks of usage, these tablets are generally too small in surface area to deliver enough chlorine or other treating agents to the fluid body to kill germs at the advertised 99.9% level. Therefore, in order to maintain the advertised germ kill rate, a user must add an additional tablet to the toilet bowl tank sometime during the dissolving process in order to maintain the advertised germ kill rate. If this additional tablet is, in fact, added to the fluid body along with the remainder of the first tablet, the combination of the two tablets will now deliver more sanitizing agents to the fluid body than is necessary. This is both undesirable and non-economical. In reality, a replacement tablet is typically not added to the toilet bowl tank until the first tablet is fully dissolved.
A similar problem also occurs in the swimming pool and spa environment. For example, many pool owners place a wide variety of water treatment tablets such as chlorine/sanitizing tablets into the skimmer basket member in order to sanitize the pool water. As these tablets dissolve, the amount of chlorine delivered to the water diminishes. Eventually, the tablets stop delivering the proper amount of water treatment agents necessary to keep the pool clean and properly chlorinated. As in the case of the toilet bowl sanitizing tablets, a pool owner must again place additional tablets in the skimmer basket member in order to achieve the proper chlorination level including keeping the pH factor and the total alkalinity within the proper range. Typically, additional tablets will have to be added to the skimmer basket member every three to five days depending upon the pool water conditions.
Many different types of chemical feeders including liquid treatment devices for automatically dispensing treating agents into a liquid body have been designed and used. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,356,460; 3,390,695; and 3,483,989. However, most of these devices have been complicated to use and expensive to manufacture. The known non-pressurized devices typically have complicated valve arrangements that tend to fail over time and the known pressurized devices typically cover or immerse the bulk of the water treating tablets or other soluble agents with water and then require metering of the saturated solution.
It is therefore desirable to develop a simple, economical device which will store a plurality of fluid treatment tablets and automatically feed such tablets into the fluid body so as to maintain a relatively constant tablet surface area within the fluid body so as to deliver a substantially continuous prescribed treatment dosage to the fluid body.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.
In one aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a device for automatically feeding a plurality of soluble tablets into a fluid body, the present device including at least one shaft member, an elevator member having an elongate portion and a platform portion, an attachment member, and a base member. The elevator member is adaptable for holding a plurality of tablets, preferably in a stackable arrangement, and is selectively positionable relative to at least a portion of the length of the shaft member such that, when a plurality of tablets are arranged thereon, the elevator member can be positioned such that any portion of one or more of the plurality of tablets can be immersed within the fluid body. The attachment member is configured for removably receiving one end portion of the shaft member such that the shaft member and elevator member can be easily disengaged therefrom for quick and easy loading of the soluble treating agents. Although the attachment member can take on a wide variety of different configurations depending upon the particular application, it will typically be fixedly attached to a portion of the structure surrounding or containing a portion of the fluid body therewithin.
In another aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a device for automatically feeding a plurality of granular tablets into a fluid body, the present device including at least one shaft member, a basket member, an attachment member, and a base member. The basket member is adaptable for holding a plurality of granules and is selectively positionable relative to at least a portion of the length of the shaft member such that, when a plurality of granules are contained therein, the basket member can be positioned such that any portion of the plurality of granules can be immersed within the fluid body.
In still other aspects of the present invention, the automatic feeding of a soluble fluid treating agent is incorporated into a typical automatic chlorinator device associated with swimming pools and in a free-floating flotation device designed for floating in a free-standing body of water such as a swimming pool.
The present device has particular utility in a wide variety of different fluid treatment applications including toilet bowl tank applications as well as swimming pool/spa applications. In these applications, some of the embodiments of the present device can be attached to any appropriate structure associated with the structure containing the fluid body such as the floor portion associated with a typical toilet bowl tank, or it can be attached to the basket member floor associated with a typical swimming pool/spa skimmer device. In a preferred embodiment, each tablet includes an opening extending therethrough adaptable for receiving the elongated member associated with the present device, each of the plurality of tablets being slidably positionable onto the elongated member and being supported by the platform member for movement therewith.
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the detailed description in connection with the drawings and appended claims.